


The last gesture

by MarsLionHearted



Category: The Hunger Games
Genre: F/M, everlark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-01
Updated: 2013-11-01
Packaged: 2017-12-31 03:29:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1026735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarsLionHearted/pseuds/MarsLionHearted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's no place for sacrifices, the reaping doesn't allow volunteers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The last gesture

**Author's Note:**

> Katniss and Peeta POVs

Katniss:

The sound of her name keeps ringing in my head like drums. Did Effie just say her name? I want to scream but there’s not air in my lungs, I don’t think that my heart is even beating. I feel like drowning but I shouldn’t, I have to reach the surface for her and I do, I run and try to catch her while the peacemakers take her to the stage. They try to stop me so I try it, I know it’s not gonna work, I know it’s not allow but I try it anyway…

"I volunteer!… I volunteer as tribute!!!"

The peacemakers take a look to the stage as they hold me back. “Oh! what a wonderful demonstration young lady, but as it’s been stated, take someone’s place in the games is against the rules, I’m sorry” Effie says in her used cheery way as she shakes her head. The peacemakers take me away and handcuff me at the back of the square… I fight, I kick, I scream but is inevitable. My life is slipping away of my body as they take away the person I love the most.

There’s not a sound in my head, I feel like everything vanished around me, it’s just me, here, chained and she on the stage, alone. As I look at her I start feeling like the worst person ever. There she is, my little sister, the one I should be trying to take care of, no the other way around, because right now I see how she’s looking at me trying not to cry, trying to remain strong for me and my mom. My mom!, I forgot about her, for once in a lot of time I feel connected to her, both our lives are ruined now. I try to find her with my eyes but everything is blurry, I wish they let her come close to me, right now I really could use a hug.

My eyes meet Prim’s again, I’m about to collapse when I hear Effie reading the second name picked from the bowl. I didn’t really hear it but I follow Prim’s eyes while she sees how the second tribute is climb to the stage. My eyes can’t not believe what they see. I close them for a second wishing what I’m seeing is just product of my shocking state, I open them again just to find out is not. Peeta Mellark, the boy with the bread, the boy that save my life, the boy that gave me hope, he is now next to Effie, heading to death.

All of these years a glimpse of him always gave me a feeling of safeness, of relieved, that this world was not as fuck up as it seems. Today I feel how every single thing he made me feel is being ripped off from me, as he is, as Prim is.

I don't think I can take this anymore, feel like my head is about to explode. Effie force them to shake hands, I see how Prim can hardly look at him. Then I look at him and he’s looking at me, I feel a deep pain in my heart as it races. Somehow I can’t take my eyes from his, is so weird, like he’s trying to reach me and tell me something with his eyes, is like we are finally talking to each other after all this years. I feel released, consoled, protected all over again and when I about to let that feeling take over of me, it struck me, that boy, that boy that one day gave me hope and saved my life is becoming today a potential slayer of my sister.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Peeta:

I cannot see her from where I’m standing but I can hear her voice, helpless, full of pain and despair and I feel it, the pain in my chest, her pain is my pain. I wish I could do something, a great gesture and stand against this madness, fight with her, for her, for her little sister’s life. Can I? Can I do this? I’m not that brave but I should do it. I did never have the nerve to talk to her but this, this would be better, I wouldn’t last a minute alive but somehow she will know how much she meant for me, that she was not alone. I’m afraid, shaking, trying to take courage, there it is again, her voice, I hear her crying through the square and it’s killing me. I’m trying to fight the fear and open my mouth but, is it my name? my name on Effie’s voice brings me back to reality so abruptly like a thunder that wakes you up in the middle of the night. 

Next thing I know I’m on the stage, Effie says something to me but I can’t listen, I’m scared. I look to the crowd and see my parents, I think is the first time I see my mom without that angry shell, she is astound, she’s not crying but she doesn’t look distant like she always does, that scares me even more, my dad is not that strong he’s curled up in the floor shaking and my older brother tries to hold him so he won’t fall.

I feel dizzy, I feel terribly lonely. Effie grabs me by the arm and gets me closer to Prim, so we can shake hands. She is staring at the floor, for a second her eyes meet mine and she gives me a shy, sad grin, and I see it, I see on Prim’s face the face of that little girl who sang the first day of school 11 years ago and the birds fell silent. I know it, I know it now, what I’m going to do, what that great gesture will be.

I try to find her in the crowd, I want to see her for the last time. There she is, in the back of the square handcuffed to a post, with her eyes on Prim, so defenseless, not strong at all, not the way she always seems, she looks like that day on the rain at the back of the bakery. I keep watching her and let this feel that only she can makes me feel invade me one more time, a feeling of safety, of tenderness, a sense of peace.

I want to remember this feeling, I want to remember every single detail about it and about her and fix it in my mind: her face, her skin, her hair, her eyes… her eyes! she is looking at me now, I try to remain still, I try not to break down, in another time I’d just give up and look away but no, not today, if I can only talk to her and tell her what I want to do, that she can trust me, that she doesn’t have to be afraid anymore, can she see it in my eyes? I wanna believe she does and that takes the fear away from me, her eyes give me hope, give me the strength to do what I have to do, to stop her pain… my pain.


End file.
